She always slept more than the other ducks, and did not push her way to the food like the others, but today she took a turn for the worse. She was getting tired easily, and on two occasions become clumsy and started falling down. Whether she is weak - perhaps genetically, or because of niacin deficiency, or she is sick we are not sure, but all the others are alright.
Each of the duckies still had little bands on their legs, and today I cut them off, and unfortunately, the band on the the weak duck was the most difficult to remove. So, she had to put up with being handled, and prodded a bit more than the others.
For a while this evening Duck Daddy just held the little girl, and kept her warm. She was quite comfy, and squeaked ever so gently for about 20 minutes. Tomorrow we will see if we can add niacin to her diet, and perhaps that will help. We may need to quarantine her from the others, but it does not appear to be sickness. It appears to be a more general weakness. It is so sad to see a little duckling falling down, and having troubles.
3 comments:
aww man. I hope the little one's ok. They look so cute!
Hope the duckling starts to improve. She has a better chance with duck daddy looking after her than she might in a large breeding centre.
BB
Mike
This morning little sick ducky is looking worse. We have some special livestock vitamins which we have added to the water, as suggested by the gang at Agway, but she is worsening, and even went into a little fit. Oh so sad to see.
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